Runners
by C-Alliance
Summary: The Fire Empire has all but wiped them out. Now on the run a band of refugees fight for survival in a very hostile world that would like nothing more then to see them destroyed.
1. Battle Plans

A/N: This is my attempt to write a history for the Naruto universe. Since this takes place 600 years before the events of Naruto, this story will be OC driven with most of the chapters focusing on the band of refugees I created. Of the chapters that do focus on Fire, I will use the ancestors of the main characters.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its history.

* * *

The young girl stood mesmerized by a field filled with seemingly endless rows of flowers. The girl nearly tripped as ran into the field to look at all the flowers. Behind her was her brother. A generally carefree and laidback person, he was not used to the constant 'traveling' he and his fellow refugees were forced to make.

"Come on Emiko, were leaving in few hours and we need to be ready." The man yelled to his younger sister.

The girl, upset that she had to go so soon, started to protest, but decided against it.

"Okay." She stood up and walked toward her older brother who was standing at the edge of the field.

* * *

The small makeshift village was slowly being torn down; soldiers running around helping were they could. The two siblings walked along the path to the designated gathering area, carrying all of their belonging and 'house' with them, when one of the soldiers noticed the two siblings.

"Hey, Sadiki!" He suddenly yelled.

"Huh?" The older sibling looked around to see who had called his name when he noticed the soldier walking toward them. The soldier, Caden, was about as loyal as friends can get. His cheery attitude could clearly be seen as he approached the siblings.

"Hey, Caden. What's with the outfit?" Asked Sadiki as Caden neared.

"Huh? Oh this," He said, realizing what he was wearing, "I joined the army!"

"What! Why? Don't you know that it's basically suicide?" His friend said with a look of shock on his face.

"Well, I figured the only way I could get revenge for all the damage that Fire had caused was to join the army." He said as he raised his sword in a mater-o-fact way.

"At least try to take some of them with you." Sadiki said with a smirk on his face.

"Gee, thanks for believing in me." He responded, returning his sword to the holster on his back. "Well, I'd like to talk some more but I have to be at a meeting in 10 minutes." With that Caden turned around and ran off to his next destination.

"Where are we going anyway?" The little girl next to Sadiki looked around nervously, noticing that most of the soldiers were running toward a large tent near the forest.

"Not really sure? I just hope it's as peaceful as this place was." A look of disappointment appeared on the older siblings face.

"I just hope its flowers are as pretty as the ones here were." She said with an energetic smile.

"Yeah, I hope so too."

* * *

Caden ran toward the tent near the forest. When he got near the entrance one of the guards opened the flap that served as the entrance. Caden scanned the rooms for a place to sit. When he couldn't find one, he leaned against one of the poles keeping the tent up. One person stood at the end of the tent, a tall man with scars all over his body. Caden did not know his name, but he did know of his accomplishments. This man had survived over 100 engagements with the Fire Empire. To call him a veteran was an understatement. He was currently talking to the gathered soldiers.

"The Fire Empire have found us and have already sent in one of their regiments to deal with us." He stopped in order to let this knowledge sink in among the gathered soldiers. "Fortunately, we learned of this quick enough to get an escape plan made. Some local rebels have offered to help us by transporting us across the sea to the southern part of the Fire Empire."

"What's the bad news?" One of the soldiers asked.

"The bad news is that we are to provide a distraction for the Tea rebels until they can get our people to their destination." He again stopped to allow this information to sink in. "Since most of you have never actually fought against Fire's army, I will explain what to do and what not to do against them." He stopped again so he could bring out a map of the northern part of the Tea Province and what appeared to be rough drawing of the various troops in Fire's ranks. He pointed to the first drawing of what appeared to be a samurai, "This is Fire's main fighting force. They make up the bulk of the enemies army. Luckily they are no more then an inconvenience, even for a rookie." He moved on to the next drawing. This one wore a mask that looked like an animal and had a pouch on his leg. "These are the ones you need to watch out for on the field. They have increased speed and strength and have the ability to use different types of jutsu. Needless to say, they are to be avoided at all costs. If you have to engage them, make sure to attack in groups, never attack them alone."

"What the hell! How are we supposed to fight that!" One of the soldiers jumped up and yelled to the officer.

"Carefully." He responded. "Although powerful, they are still nothing more then mindless troops designed to kill. They can easily be outsmarted." He continued on with his explanation, moving on to the last drawing. This one wore a general's outfit complete with the Fire symbol on his chest. "These are the ones you should never engage, no matter what. They command Fire's troops and are highly dangerous and skilled at all forms of jutsu."

"What should we do if we ever encounter one?" The soldier next to Caden asked.

"Run. Run as fast as you can in the opposite direction. They are nothing like the troops they command, they can actually think for themselves." The officer spoke with genuine fear in his words. "If you spot one, report it immediately to your superior so they can take care of them."

"What makes you think that they will fare better then us?"

"Experience." The officer spoke with a commanding tone to the soldier, obviously annoyed with the pointless questions. "They know their tactics and strategies better then any of you would." After he said that he turned his attention to the map. "Now then, about the battle." He pointed to a forest at the center of the map. "Our job is to engage the enemy in the forest so we can hopefully catch them off guard. After that we will push the enemy into open field where they can't hide. After a while, if either side hasn't claimed victory, we will push through their lines and head west in order to link up with the citizens." As he spoke he traced a path through the forest, into an open field and then west until he was off the map. "That is all, if there are no more questions then I suggest you get ready, we leave in 3 hours." The soldiers began to leave the tent while the officer put away the map and drawings. All of them knew that they probably wouldn't survive the coming battle.


	2. Shockwave

Savas looked over the field that was slowly turning into a graveyard. His soldiers had just pushed the enemy into the clearing as planned, but it had cost them. Out of the fifty soldiers that had joined in the assault, only twenty of them remained. The enemy outnumbered them nearly two to one, but that didn't stop them from taking massive casualties either. He had taken out a good number of them himself, earning some new scars in the process, but it was the new recruit, Caden, that was the real surprise. He was actually managing to hold his own against the enemy foot soldiers. Savas had actually thought about helping him, but every time he did the rookie would surprise him with some trick and take out the problem. Its not like it mattered though. As long as the enemy commander was still alive this battle would continue and their chances of surviving would decrease.

At that moment an enemy ninja attempted to sneak up on the unsuspecting commander and tossed a few kunai knives at him. Savas immediately sensed the knives and side stepped out of the way before unsheathing his combat knife and charging the man. The enemy ninja was caught off guard and had barely had enough time to grab another kunai from his leg pouch. The two exchanged blows while at the same time trying to avoid being slashed by the others knife. Savas eventually got the upper hand when he landed a punch to his gut and another to his neck before he jammed his knife through his enemy's skull. After wiping off his knife with his enemy's clothing he returned his it to its holster on his leg before returning to the battle Caden was currently having.

* * *

Caden had just made his 20th kill of the day and was quite confident in his abilities now. He didn't know why, but he was currently feeling a new surge of energy coursing through his veins. This, combined with the adrenaline rush, made him feel invincible. Caden decided to take this new feeling and seek out the commanding officer of the enemy soldiers. He didn't have to look long before coming across the commander in a clearing near the forest with two ninjas guarding him. Caden raised his sword and quickly cut down the two guards before turning his attention to the officer who had begun to charge him with his own sword in hand. Their swords met with a loud clang and a struggle for dominance began with Caden quickly losing. He needed a new plan, and fast.

* * *

"What the hell has that idiot done?" Savas had followed Caden and watched as he engaged the enemy commander. "That idiots going to get himself killed." He had attempted to jump in and help, but five enemy soldiers had stopped him from actually interfering.

"Sorry, but the commander doesn't wish disturbed at the moment so we will have to keep you entertained for a while." The samurai in front of Savas ran forward at him and attempted to kill the man, but Savas sidestepped and landed a powerful blow to the man's back.

* * *

Caden jumped back from officer and took a defensive stance, waiting for the man to attack. The officer immediately made some hand signs and made three shadow clones. Caden stepped back in a slight show of fear in the face of this new problem.

'_How the hell did he do that?' _Caden had a confused look on his face that quickly turned to determination, _'One of them has to be the real one and there is only one way to find out.'_ At this last thought, Caden charged the man and managed to take out one of the clones before the officer could react. Unfortunately, Caden did not have a lot of time to react before he was hit by a shuriken that one of the other clones threw at him. He immediately dropped to a knee, dropped his sword, and blood trickled down his right arm when the real commander appeared in front of him, about to bring his katana down on him.

Caden raised his uninjured arm, in a futile attempt to block the katana about to cut him in half when he felt a surge of energy build up in his arm. He quickly turned his palm toward the officer and a huge burst of energy was released and hit the officer, stunning him momentarily. Caden took the opportunity, grabbed his sword and swung, cutting the man if half. The look on the enemy commanders face was that of pure disbelief before he fell to the ground. Caden, in pure shock and disbelief himself, did not notice the enemy samurai sneaking up behind him and could not react in time before being impaled by the enemy's katana.

* * *

Savas had just killed the last of the five enemy soldiers who had blocked his path and had witnessed the event and was too stunned to stop the enemy samurai from killing Caden. When the shock passed he ran into the field and killed the samurai before he had a chance to defend himself.

Savas walked over to his fallen comrade and picked up his body. "Such potential lost so early in life." Savas lowered his head and carried the body of Caden back to his soldiers. _'With the enemy commander dead, the rest should fall into retreat.'_

When Savas approached the rest of his soldiers he immediately noticed that they had taken a huge number of casualties, only eleven of the original fifty soldiers remained. Savas dropped the body of Caden in front of his gathered soldiers who looked at the body and back at Savas. One of the soldiers approached Savas with look of fear and relief on his face.

"What is the situation soldier?" He asked the man in front of him.

"Sir, the enemy was about to wipe us out when they suddenly turned in retreat." The soldier said, clutching a gash on his forehead.

"Their commanding officer was killed, by him." He said, pointing at the body of Caden.

"How is this possible?" He now looked confused.

"I honestly don't know." Savas shock his head. "All I know is that just before killing the man, he unleashed a huge surge of energy from his palm into the officer, stunning him long enough for him to kill him."

"Then what killed him?" He was now really confused.

"An enemy soldier caught him off guard and killed him." After he said this he picked up Caden's body again, "Come on, the rebels will be expecting us and if we aren't their in three days then they will leave without us." The small group of soldiers left the field with different expressions on their face's, none of them happy.


	3. Details

This chapter should explain more about the Fire Empire and the refugees. Also, if you think I messed up with the ratings, please let me know.

* * *

Katashi Hatake was walking through the city he called home thinking about the disastrous battle that he had just heard about from one of the surviving soldiers. The info he received made him wonder why the Emperor continued to train mindless drones. Apparently, it only took one enemy to take out half the regiment and the commanding officer. It just showed how weak the empire was becoming. Of course, thoughts like these could get you killed if you weren't careful.

Katashi continued to walk along the road when he ran into one of the 'drones'. "Commander Hatake! Did you hear what happened?"

"Yes, I heard." This was what, the tenth time he's heard about it in the last hour alone.

"You should have fought with us. We might have won if you did." This man was clearly a suck up, and Katashi did not like suck ups.

"If I had fought with you, I probably would have killed you for that stupid retreat you made against a vastly outnumbered enemy!" The soldier in front of him didn't even seem fazed by this revelation.

"Sir, we may have outnumbered them, but they somehow managed to overpower us at every turn." He tried to explain to his visibly pissed commander.

"How strong can an enemy with a population that barely reaches eight hundred at best be." It was not that Katashi hated this band of refugees; he had no real reason to other then the fact that they took off a good chunk of skin on the lower half of his face causing his to wear a mask that covered the damage. Of course this didn't cause any malice toward them due to the simple fact that it was during a battle and his opponent was in a life or death situation. "From what I'm told they can't even perform any jutsus."

"Apparently our info on that was wrong." This shocked the commander. As far as anyone knew these refugees were incapable of performing jutsus, at least that's what they thought.

"What? How?"

"It was the one that killed our commander. He pointed his hand at him and released a powerful amount of chakra into him, stunning our commander."

"Then how did he die?" Katashi was a little confused at how he died when he was only stunned, but guessed, correctly, that whoever did must have used a weapon or other means to kill him.

"While he was stunned the soldier cut him in half with his sword. Quite gruesome actually."

"I wouldn't doubt it. Well if you have nothing more important to say then run along." The soldier did as he was told and ran off, possibly to tell more people about this event. Still, this was troubling news. If these rebels had actually discovered how to perform jutsus then they could become an even bigger problem for the empire. Not like he cared if the empire was destroyed. It had become so arrogant and power hungry that it could not even keep up with its own expanding borders. Other countries had to have noticed this because they had become bolder and increased their border raids against the empire. Wind had even gone so far as to conquer a Fire city, although they didn't keep it very long. Currently they were engaged in a navel war with Water and were losing, shocking I know. He honestly didn't know why the Emperor wanted the Land of Water; it was small compared to most of the other major countries and it usually stayed out of the other countries affairs unless it involved them in some way.

It could also be because they were once an ally of the empires greatest threats, the predecessors of the band of refugees. This could explain their obsession with wiping them out instead of allowing them to live how they want. If the disastrous battle with the refugees before meant anything, then they would eventually come back and bite them in the ass. It was only a matter of time before they figured out how to create different jutsus and they would become a serious threat. Only question was how long it took them to realize the power they had. Katashi had been so lost in thought that he didn't even realize that he was outside his own home. It still amazed him what you could do when you didn't even realize what you were doing. He decided that he might as well go in and take a nap before reporting on his recent assignment on the Snow Country.


	4. Raid

Flashback chapter.

* * *

"Hey Caden! Wake up!" Sadiki yelled at his sleeping friend. Caden merely waved him off and attempted to go back to sleep. "Get your lazy ass up, we got to pack our stuff!" Caden finally got up from his spot on the tree and walk over to his ten year old friend.

"Can't we pack later?" Caden had been up all night training with his wooden sword in an attempt to get better and avenge his parent's deaths. Not the smartest thing he could do, but it was all he could think of at the time.

"You know that my mother like to pack a day early." His mother had always been the 'better safe then sorry' type of person. "Besides, the tent alone takes at least eight hours to take down and you know we don't have the luxury of taking it down and packing up our stuff." The entire population was in an uproar about the rumors of an advancing Fire army in the nearby area and wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.

"Fine." He conceded with a sigh. "Why is the Empire even in the area?"

"Probably because Wind took the nearby town not to long ago." The Wind country had become much more bold in the last few months and had taken a town nearby when the refugees had set up camp in the area.

"What are they, stupid? Do they really think that they can hold the town?"

"Apparently. Anyway, we need to get home before we get in trouble." Sadiki and Caden continued talking as they walked home to their family's tent.

* * *

Katashi Hatake stood on a hill overlooking the refugees current home. Torches could be seen lighting the paths in the small makeshift village. He must have had a lot of luck since he had actually found the refugees. He did not know if it good or bad luck yet, but he knew he was going to find out soon. He knew of the refugee's famous commander Savas who had killed over a hundred Fire commanders on his own. Katashi would have to watch out or he could be added to that kill count.

A soldier near the commander spoke up, "Commander Hatake, we are in position and are waiting for your orders to attack."

"Tell them to hold position for now." The soldier nodded and ran to issue the command. Katashi did not want to rush things. He would gather as much information as possible, making sure nothing could go horribly wrong and cost him a massive amount of casualties. He turned and walked back to his camp hoping that everything would go as planned.

* * *

Savas rallied his troops the moment that the Fire army came into view. They had charged the enemy soldiers, but were quickly pushed back into the tent city, thus doing what the refugees had feared, putting the lives of the citizens in danger. Refugee archers had taken up positions all around the tent city hoping to catch some poor souls off guard.

"Fire at will!" Dozens of archers opened fire on the unsuspecting soldiers without mercy. Caught off guard, the remaining soldiers attempted to retreat only to be ambushed by more archers. The archers broke off into smaller groups and began to hunt down more enemy troops.

Unfortunately, not all groups were as lucky as the previous one. In the eastern section, enemy soldiers were overpowering the refugees and were slaughtering anything that was unlucky enough to be in their line of sight. Fallen torches had already set some of the tents on fire and some unfortunate people who were still asleep when the fires started. The smoke from the fire was making refugee ambushes on Fire soldiers a little easier, but it still would not be enough to push them back, their were just too many enemies.

* * *

Savas held his knife as he prepared to take on another Fire soldier. This one was a little stronger then the others. The enemy soldier charged, kunai in hand, as Savas blocked the attack with his combat knife and thrust his open palm in the other mans face, knocking him back and stunning him just long enough for Savas to hit a vital area with his knife and kill him. Savas was determined to find the commander who led this attack and make him regret his decision to attack their home.

* * *

Sadiki had awoken to the sounds of battle. Almost instantly his thoughts turned to concern for his mother and younger sister. Once he was sure they were okay he immediately checked to make sure Caden was awake. To his surprise, Caden was not only awake, but he was wielding his sword, looking ready to take on the world.

"Caden, what the hell are doing?" Sadiki knew the look his friend had and was well aware that he may have to knock out him out in order to prevent him from doing something stupid.

"What does it look like? I going to go and fight with the other soldiers." Caden almost made it sound like that was something normal.

"Caden, your ten and you weigh next to nothing. I highly doubt you would last long out there." Caden, looking down in defeat, agreed with his friend and went out to the main part of the tent where his sister was waiting for them.

"Where's mom?" Sadiki looked around with a very worried look on his face.

"She ran outside with one of her old swords." Emiko said, her five-year-old mind not fully understanding what was happening.

"What!" Sadiki immediately ran outside and grabbed a fallen torch before running in a random direction leaving a worried looking Caden behind to watch Emiko.

* * *

Katashi was just finishing off a refugee soldier when he noticed a little boy with a torch running in the opposite direction. He followed him so he could knock him unconscious and hide him somewhere so he hopefully wouldn't be killed. Hey his soldiers may not have any morals, but he did.

* * *

Sadiki slowed down when he noticed a women's figure on the ground ahead of him. The woman had at least thirty kunai sticking out of her and was bleeding quite heavily, but it was obvious she was dead. Sadiki's heart literally stopped when he saw the figure.

"Mom." Sadiki ran to his fallen mother and fell to his knees. He couldn't control himself when he saw her and just began crying. It wasen't long before he sensed a presence sneaking up behind him. He turned around, torch still in hand, to face Katashi.

"Calm down kid, I'm not going to…" Katashi was unable to finish his sentence as Sadiki swung the lit torch and attempted to hit the Fire commander.

Sadiki let his rage take over his thought process. He no longer cared about his safety, only one thought crossed his mind, to severely injure or kill the man in front of him. He kept swinging his torch in an attempt to hit the man. Katashi did not fight back for fear that he might hurt the kid.

* * *

Savas had sensed a huge increase in power in the west sector of the village. He raced towered the source, hoping that the source was one of their own.

* * *

Sadiki continued to swing at Katashi not noticing three Fire soldiers trying to sneak up on him. Katashi was trying to wave them off, but they kept advancing. Just as they were about to strike, Savas appeared behind them and killed them before they even realized he was there.

Katashi noticed the action and immediately recognized the other man as the legendary general Savas. Katashi was feeling a mix of fear and anticipation. He knew that alone he would probably lose, badly. He could only hope that the constant fighting had weakened the great general enough to where he might be able to stand a chance.

He never got the chance to fight Savas. Katashi, distracted by the arrival of Savas, never saw the hit coming. Sadiki had swung the lit torch upward as hard as he could and set the enemy commanders jaw on fire. Katashi yelled in pain as Sadiki prepared for another swing. Before he could attack again Katashi fled the area as fast as could. Savas was about to chase after him when he noticed a women's corpse not to far away. He then turned his attention to the boy and noticed that he had been crying. He assumed that the woman must have been someone close to the kid. He decided to stay and watch the him.

* * *

Katashi decided to retreat, knowing now that the luck he had was bad. The lower half of his face was severely scarred and burned and he had a rag over the area to stop bleeding. He was still reeling over the immense power he had sensed in the young boy and knew that if he ever learned to control it that the empire would be in trouble. He would think about it later, right now he needed to focus on explaining to his superiors about how a vastly outnumbered enemy managed to overpower them.


	5. New Names

"We can't do that! The casualty rate would be to high!" Councilor Soren, one of the three council members elected to lead the refugees, was currently arguing against an attack on a Fire village not far from their current location.

"We have to." Councilor Bakari, arguably the most influential of the three, was first to respond. "Three of the Empire's top commanders are going to be there, we can't afford to pass up an opportunity like this."

Soren was quick to respond. "That's exactly why we need to avoid a confrontation right now. In fact, I suggest we pack up and leave the area as fast as possible in order to avoid a confrontation."

"I disagree, especially about running." Councilor Tameri, a daughter of a previous commander and a veteran it almost made her decisions on the council predictable. "We need to take any opportunity to weaken the Empire, even if it means a few casualties."

"Are you crazy! We barely have enough soldiers to defend ourselves let alone attack a village!" Soren's argument was obviously not enough to dissuade the other two councilors of their decisions.

"I'm sure Commander Savas and myself can recruit some new soldiers. Besides, who wouldn't jump at the chance to actually be in the attack that put some fear into the eyes of the Empire?"

Soren looked at Tameri, then at Bakari before finally lowering his head in defeat. "Fine, but you have to have a strike force of at least one hundred and a defense force of at least fifty." When he got a nod of approval from both councilors he decided that this was the perfect chance to bring up the lack of a name for the refugees. "Alright then. If we're going to start actually fighting back, we should have a proper name to have them fear."

"What exactly do you suggest?" Bakari was a little curious as to what Soren had in mind.

"Yes, what?" Tameri was also interested in the potential that an official name could bring for the refugees.

"The name I propose is Tech."

After a few seconds of silence Tameri spoke up. "Why?"

"Because, believe it or not, we are the most advanced society in the known world. Tech just seems like the most logical choice." After another moment of silence the other two councilors gave their approval on the name. "Ok then, from this moment on we are no longer the hopeless band of refugees, we are now the soon to be feared Tech."

* * *

True to her word, Tameri had managed to find over a hundred new soldiers for the attack. It was finding people willing to stay behind and defend the area that was the difficult part. Nobody wanted to miss the chance to actually hit a Fire town and so many had signed up that it was impossible to take them all and keep the element of surprise. Those that couldn't go were forced to defend what little they had. Tameri was currently explaining the details of the mission to the now one hundred and thirty soldiers gathered at the center of the tent village.

"As most of you already know, the reason that you are gathered here is because of the assault on a nearby Fire village that we have planned." Tameri paused for a moment before continuing. "What most of you don't know is the purpose of the attack."

Savas, who had been standing beside Tameri, continued on. "The purpose of the attack is to eliminate three of the Empire's top commanders who are currently residing in the village." Savas looked on as the soldiers gathered quickly went through a number of emotions. First fear of the almost certain suicidal attack, then dread of what was certain to be their doom, and finally, anticipation of the only chance they would ever get to actually bring the fight to the Empire instead of waiting for the enemy to show up at their doorstep. It actually made Savas proud that there were so many willing to go through with this, despite the fact that it would probably end in the deaths of most, if not all, of them. He decided it was time to give them another reason to fight at their full potential. "I would also like to add that we now have a name to fight with." At the mention of this the room suddenly quieted down in sudden anticipation. Like most of the refugees they had always wanted a name to separate themselves from their failed predecessors, but could never get the time to propose one because of the constant fear of attack. "We are now known as the Tech." At first there was confusion at the choice, but the more they thought about the name the more they were determined to make sure that the Empire would never forget it. When the commotion that the name had caused died down Savas allowed Tameri to go into more detail about the assault. Since he was no longer required he decided that he would take his leave to go prepare for the attack.

* * *

Savas did not get far before Sadiki stopped him in the middle of the makeshift road.

"You have to let me go with the attack squad." Sadiki had overheard the nature of the assault earlier and was determined to be part of the attack force.

"Why should I?" Savas, who had heard all the excuses and pleas to join in the attack from other soldiers before, was curious to see if Sadiki would be able to do what they couldn't.

"You know as well as I do that none of the other soldiers can match me on the field." Sadiki had practically doubled his combat training when he heard of Caden's death. At first it was for revenge, but eventually he continued in order to prevent something like this from happening again. "Not to mention that not only was I the one that taught Caden how to use a sword, I also figured out how he did that ability you told me about."

Although he had a point, Savas was sure there was another reason and he was determined to find out what. "What about Emiko? She needs someone to look after her and you can't do that dead." The mention of his younger sisters name seemed to give Sadiki second thoughts, but he quickly shook it off.

"I'm confident in my abilities, but I have been able to make sure that if something did happen to me then she will not be forced to live of the streets."

"I see you have put some thought into this." Savas paused for a moment in order to think. Finally, he came to a decision. "Alright, but I expect you to follow orders, no matter how insignificant they seem." Sadiki nodded his head in agreement and then left in order to prepare for the coming battle. Savas began to wonder if he had made the right choice.


	6. Our last breath

Katashi tossed aside an enemy corpse and prepared to fight another enemy when, upon seeing how brutally his comrades had been killed, he ran away. The attack by the newly named Tech had been quick and had cost the lives of the three top commanders who were in the village. Katashi couldn't care less about them, but his reputation demanded that he avenge their deaths anyway. As he caught up to the fleeing soldier he nearly avoided being hit by an enemy arrow. '_Damn it, he led me into an ambush._ _Clever basterd.'_They had obviously been planning this attack for some time. Before the archer could attempt to hit him again he threw a kunai at him and hit him in the skull, killing him instantly. It was at this point the other one decided to charge him and left a huge gash on his left arm before he could jump out of the way. Katashi quickly drew his short sword and launched his counter attack before his enemy could recover and severed his opponent's sword hand. Deciding that his opponent was no longer a threat, he turned and began to walk away, his opponent wisely deciding that it was pointless to attack again.

* * *

Savas had ordered an immediate withdrawal the moment that the three commanders were killed. Unfortunately, the Fire counter had been stronger then expected and the retreat order never made it to the Tech soldiers in the village. He decided that it was pointless to try and attack again and he ordered the soldiers that stayed back to fall back to the Tech camp. Savas however, went into the village determined to get as many Tech out of their as possible. It wasn't long before he came across a soldier who had his hand cut off and was attempting to stop the blood flow. He helped the injured soldier and told him to get out of their and head home before he ran off in search of more injured soldiers.

* * *

Sadiki released another shockwave, the name he had given to the energy attack, at the enemy ninja who had attempted to jump him. Right when the shockwave hit he rushed the stunned enemy and rammed his sword through the enemy's throat. Sadiki, unlike most of the Tech soldiers in the village, had received the retreat order, but chose to ignore it. He was determined to kill local warlord who ran this village and hopefully give some help to the advancing Wind army. Wind was one of the few nations who weren't hostile to them and Sadiki felt like they should have some advantage here. Plus, it gave him an excuse to kill more Fire soldiers. When he reached the warlords manor he couldn't help but feel a little bit of satisfaction as he tore through the manor, killing any guard that crossed his path. When he reached the room where the warlord was hiding he kicked down the door and killed the two guards before he cornered the warlord. Sadiki was so focused on the man in front of him that he never noticed the archer that had appeared at the door, let alone the arrow that he had shot at him.

* * *

Katashi was running through the village streets when he narrowly a kunai thrown at him. When turned to face his attacker he immediately felt a little bit of fear in him when he saw that it was the Tech commander Savas who had nearly hit him. Reacting quickly Katashi threw three kunai of his own at him, only to have each one skillfully deflected away. Savas wasted no time in drawing his sword launching his counter against Katashi who had drawn his short sword. When the two swords met Savas immediately took advantage of Katashi's useless left arm and used his previously hidden combat knife to try and stab him in the skull. He narrowly missed, but still managed to rip his mask and leave a good-sized cut on his cheek. The two quickly jumped apart and clashed swords again with Savas having the clear advantage. Katashi knew that if he stayed on the defensive he would lose this fight, but he also knew that he didn't have ability to on the offensive, which basically meant he was screwed.

At least he thought he was until he noticed an opening in Savas's attack and took it. Katashi managed to knock him off balance and swung for his face, barely missing and leaving a gash on him that would surely leave a scar later. Unfortunately, this left him wide open and Savas wasted no time in using it. He struck quickly with the hilt of his sword by hitting him in the face and knocking him out. He briefly contemplated killing him right there, but decided that the man was going to suffer enough when his superiors heard of his failure. Savas traced the gash on his face that trailed just below his right eye and ended below his lower lip. _'Damn, looks like I got a souvenir from all this.'_ He took one last look at the commander he left lying on the ground before he took off for home.

* * *

A/N: For those of you who read this story, I am planning three more sequals. The next one takes place 200 years before the Nine-tailed fox's attack and deals with the founding of the Tech Republic and the fall of the Fire Empire. Fire's main focus with be with Sakura's ancestor. If you have any suggestions for my next story, leave it in a review and I will look at it.


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